Supplements

Supplements are an important part of my son's biochemical therapy. His doctor oversees them, and his regimen is unique to him. I confess I cannot tell you off the top of my head why he takes each one. Then his doctor starts talking about the methylation cycle, he starts getting a glassy-eyed, vacant look from me. I can tell you that some of these supplements are to help his gut. I can tell you that they were added one at a time, and I saw improvements with each one. Some of these he takes because his gut does not absorb enough of certain things. Some he takes for this methylation cycle thing. Some are just to support general good nutrition, (things that would help us all function better.)





The blue pill box is for mornings. The purple one is for nights. In addition, he gets Juice Plus+ twice a day, a probiotic twice a day, and zinc at night. Oh yeah, and B12 by injection every 3 days. This regimen is a job in itself for me to maintain.


I once had the experience of Eli being seen by the school psychologist. She asked what he was taking, and so I told her every single little thing, right down to the B12. She tried to hide it, but her look said, "This mom is crazy! I need to save them from their craziness." Yeah, I supplement my son's brain and body with the things that he actually needs instead of pumping him with mind-altering meds with their side effects. I must be nuts. Here is my previous post about this visit.

Daytrana

This situation happened afew months ago, and I am still shaking my head in disbelief. The school district where my son attends has a psychiatrist. As part of assessing him for the next school year, we had to go in and see her. She spoke with us, and then observed Eli. She did not interact with him, or test him, and she was speaking to us most of the time he was in the room.

Diagnosis: Eli has autism and also has a hard time focusing.

She was waiting for the word to write on her little pad a prescription for him.

Daytrana, she said, was a ritalin patch. It is easy to control the dose and when he gets it, she says.

I have to admit, I was alittle taken in at the time. My husband was rightfully skeptical with the whole idea. At that time, for afew months there, Eli was getting frustrated extremely easily. I looked back on how I took ADD meds through college, but we said no thank you at this time. I discussed this with my sister later who said, "Ritalin?! I had some of that, never took it because I hated the way it made me feel."

Holy cow was that the slap in the face I needed. I remembered the similar meds I took when I was in high school and then college. I could focus on everything, right down to the way the girl's shoes in the front row didn't match her outfit. However, I felt like I was watching a show or something. I felt like I could not interact with the world around me. Do not even get me started on the "let down" effect. I could never do that to my son, my little son who does not even have the words to tell me that he feels strange.

Now that I have discovered that my inattention can be taken care of in large part by nutrition, I will never be on attention meds again.

Now just months later, Eli's general frustration level has gone down. He has been bringing home raving reports from school, without the aid of Daytrana.

I have to say that I am very concerned over the whole episode of the school psychiatrist, and I fear for families who may not be aware that ritalin is one of the most overly prescribed drugs in the whole nation.